Despite the tales you have heard about pools of "black gold", oil is actually found in rock. The oil resides in the small spaces, the pores, that exist between the solid particles that form the rock. The area where oil exists in the rock is called the reservoir. In order for the oil to be produced there has to be a fluid available to displace the oil and a force to push the oil through the rock to the well bore.

In primary production nature supplies the force and fluid to move the oil. Gas associated with oil or water from an aquifer is the driving force and fluid that moves the oil through the rock, and all that has to be done is pump the oil to the surface. When the cost of pumping the oil exceeds the value of the oil due to the loss of the driving force, then another method has to be selected to produce the oil.

In secondary recovery, water is injected into the reservoir under pressure to move the oil. This process is called waterflooding and is economical because water is more efficient than gas in displacing the oil. However, after primary and secondary recovery methods have both reached their economic limits, typically about two-thirds of the original oil still remains in the reservoir. This unrecovered oil amounts to 300 billion barrels nationally; 10 billion in the State of Kansas.

The Tertiary Oil Recovery Project was created to conduct research to find an economic tertiary (third) method to obtain additional oil from the reservoir. Tertiary oil production is also known as IOR or EOR.

Funding

TORP’s primary source of funding comes from the State of Kansas. Funding from the State is supplemented by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and industry. The DOE supplies funding for research contracts, technology transfer to assist independent oil and gas operators and field demonstration projects to demonstrate how technology applications can improve oil and gas production. Industry funding comes in the form of fellowships and participation in field demonstration projects. TORP collaborates with oil and gas producers to submit proposals to DOE for field demonstration projects when requests for proposals (RFPs) are released by the DOE.